Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease

Clive Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 28th October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Dr Cooper]

I thank the hon. Member for making that excellent point. He is absolutely right. The issues of the NHS waiting lists are pertinent and stark. Reducing them will mean that we have to get the left shift right as well as invest in acute services.

Our policies have failed the population for decades. This debate is an opportunity to make the urgent case for a national liver strategy, joined-up public health work and profound reform of the conditions that stop us all living well. Because we have failed to build an environment where healthy food is affordable and accessible, two thirds of UK adults are now overweight or obese, and one in three children in England are above a healthy weight when they leave primary school.

Fatty liver disease is a silent killer, often asymptomatic until at a very advanced stage, meaning many patients are diagnosed too late for effective intervention. Left untreated, as too many are, fatty liver disease can progress to liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer. Fatty liver disease also increases significantly the risk of heart attacks, stroke and heart failure. It is projected to overtake alcohol as the leading cause of liver transplants within a decade.

How do we treat fatty liver disease? Despite high and rising mortality rates, there are limited treatment options for patients with this disease. As I have said, weight loss and lifestyle change are essential.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for bringing this very important subject to Westminster Hall. She is absolutely right. Fatty liver disease is the fastest rising cause of liver cancer death in the UK and highlights the risk of developing a less survivable cancer for people living with obesity. Does the hon. Member agree that improvements to diagnosis of and treatment for fatty liver disease should be covered in the national cancer plan, which I called for a year ago and the Government are to announce early next year?

[Dr Cooper]

I thank the hon. Member for his excellent intervention. I absolutely agree that the national cancer strategy is essential. We must make sure that liver cancer is integrated into it, and that diagnosis and treatment are a key part of it and are funded across the country, to make sure that the inequalities that I am going to talk about are addressed sufficiently.

Before we get to the issue of diagnosis and treatment, weight loss and lifestyle change are essential. We know that a Mediterranean diet plus exercise improves liver function and that reducing ultra-processed foods reduces intrahepatic fat. However, for those whose disease has progressed to scarring of the liver, or liver fibrosis, there is an urgent need for therapies that directly target the liver.

Currently, no drugs are licensed to treat fatty liver disease in the UK. We have fallen behind the United States and Europe, as our market is too small for prioritisation. If I might get a bit more political, that is driven in part by our decision to leave the European single market. But this is a rapidly advancing field and we are approaching a potential breakthrough in treatment. With adequate planning, co-ordinated action, investment and leadership, we can ensure that our national health system is patient-ready to deliver the next generation of medications, and that all patients, regardless of postcode, can benefit.

Early diagnosis offers significantly better outcomes and a wider range of treatment options, but despite fatty liver disease being medically recognised in the 1980s, clinical and public awareness of it remains far too low. We urgently need to increase public understanding and encourage early liver checks, particularly for those at higher risk because of obesity or type 2 diabetes. What is more, we have seen primary care systemic failures to improve early detection, such that three quarters of people are diagnosed with cirrhosis at hospital in an emergency, when it is too late for effective treatment or intervention.